Ownership concentration and market value of European banks

This paper investigates the relationship between ownership concentration and market value of European banks, and the role of the institutional environment in shaping this relationship. Using GMM dynamic estimator on a sample of European banks over a 13-year period (1993–2005) we find on average a negative effect of ownership concentration on bank value, measured by Tobin's Q. However, this effect varies across different institutional settings; while higher ownership concentration results in a lower bank value particularly in the countries belonging to German legal family, the impact of ownership concentration is positive in Scandinavia. We propose that, besides the legal protection of small investors, the differences in the impact of ownership concentration across the countries could be due to the identity of the predominant owners, i.e. financial institutions in Germany and trusts and foundations in Scandinavia. This in turn implies that restrictions of shareholdings in banks could alleviate governance problems in some countries, but lower bank valuation in others.     

All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of European firms

Using a unique database of over 20 million firms over two decades, we examine industry sector and national institution drivers of the prevalence of women directors on supervisory and management boards in both public and private firms across 41 advanced and emerging European economies. We demonstrate that gender board diversity has generally increased, yet women remain rare in both boards of firms in Europe: approximately 70% have no women directors on their supervisory boards, and 60% have no women directors on management boards. We leverage institutional and resource dependency theoretical frameworks to demonstrate that few systematic factors are associated with greater gender diversity for both supervisory and management boards among both private and public firms: the same factor may exhibit a positive correlation to a management board, and a negative correlation to a supervisory board, or vice versa. We interpret these findings as evidence that country-level gender equality and cultural institutions exhibit differentiated correlations with the presence of women directors in management and supervisory boards. We also find little evidence that sector-level competition and innovativeness are systematically associated with the presence of women on either board in either group of firms.     

Ownership Identity and Concentration: A Study of their Joint Impact on Corporate Diversification

This paper examines the impact of ownership on product and international diversification. While ownership concentration has received considerable attention from agency theorists we argue that a more nuanced analysis is necessary. We consider how the identity of owners moderates the impact of ownership concentration on diversification strategies. We develop a framework that explains how the combination of different motivations, resources and capabilities associated with different types of owners results in significantly variable relationships between ownership concentration and both product and international diversification. From a theoretical perspective this suggests a social contextualization and extension of the agency theoretic approach that characterizes the field. Based on a study of 222 European firms between 1994 and 2007 we show that family ownership concentration has a positive impact on product and a negative impact on international diversification while the impact of institutional and state ownership concentration is negative on product diversification and positive on international diversification compared with family ownership. This is the first study to provide a comprehensive framework explaining how ownership concentration and identity interact and affect both international and product diversification.     

机构投资者持股与企业应计盈余管理和真实盈余管理行为选择

采用异常操控性项目的计算方法度量企业应计盈余管理和真实盈余管理程度,以2003年至2011年中国上市公司为研究样本,构建多元线性回归模型和联立方程模型,考察机构投资者持股对应计盈余管理和真实盈余管理行为选择的影响。研究结果表明,机构投资者持股比例与真实盈余管理程度显著负相关,与应计盈余管理程度显著正相关;对机构投资者明细类别的检验结果发现这种相关关系在投资基金、证券公司、QFII、保险公司和社保基金这5类机构投资者中均存在,但企业年金、信托公司、财务公司和银行持股对盈余管理行为的影响不显著;按照机构投资者持股规模、股权分置改革和终极控制人性质的分组检验结果表明,这种相关关系在不同的内外部环境中均存在,且相对于国有控股上市公司,非国有控股上市公司中机构投资者抑制真实盈余管理行为的作用更强;机构投资者持股与整体盈余管理程度显著负相关。     

机构投资者异质性、企业产权与公司绩效——基于股权分置改革前后的比较分析

本文利用2003-2009年有机构持股的A股上市公司为样本,基于不同的企业产权,利用两阶段最小二乘模型研究了不同类型的机构投资者在股改前、股改中对公司绩效的影响。首先讨论了以基金为代表的国内机构投资者和合格境外机构投资者(QFII)与公司绩效的关系,发现基金持股与公司绩效之间存在显著的正向关系,表明基金持股有助于提高公司绩效,而QFII对我国上市公司绩效没有影响。然后,研究了股权分置改革对机构持股与上市公司绩效关系的影响,以及股权分置改革前后,产权性质对机构持股与上市公司绩效关系的影响。结果显示,国有产权性质和股改过程这两个因素对以基金为首的国内机构投资者在提高公司绩效方面有不利影响,而对还未介入我国上市公司治理的QFII的投资行为没有明显影响。     

最终控制人性质、两权分离度与机构投资者持股——兼论不同类型机构投资者的差异

上市公司所有权与控制权的严重分离会影响其公司价值,进而会影响投资者的投资决策.本文以2004-2007年我国A股上市公司为研究样本,考察了上市公司两权分离状况对机构投资者总体和各类机构投资者持股决策的影响.研究发现,最终控制人所有权比例越高,两权分离度越小时,机构投资者(主要是证券投资基金)持股比例越高;而且两权分离度指标对机构投资者持股决策的影响在最终控制人为非国有性质的企业中表现更为明显.本文的研究结论表明.我国机构投资者总体上能够做到自我利益保护,在投资者保护方面发挥积极的作用,但是这种作用的发挥在各个类型机构投资者中存在显著差异.     

Is there a distinctive MENA model of corporate governance?

This study explores the diversity of corporate governance practices in the MENA region, with particular emphasis on Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Interviews with senior managers find that the state, foreign investors and large family groups act as monitors of corporations in both countries, whereas the role of institutional investors and other shareholder activist groups is minimal. Ownership was more concentrated in Egypt than in Saudi Arabia, particularly in family firms. However, control is firmly in the hands of dominant shareholders even when ownership concentration is not high enough to merit such control and boards are dominated by majority shareholders. The high levels of concentrated ownership and control, and the low levels of disclosure and transparency, clearly differentiates the corporate governance system in the region from that in Anglo-American countries while the importance of state and family shareholders reflects characteristics of organisation and control found in many developing countries, predominantly those in Asia. However, it remains premature to speak of a unique MENA model of corporate governance.     

When Financial Intermediaries are Corporate Owners: An Agency Model of Institutional Ownership

Increasingly, the equity investments of individual investors are being channeled through financial institutions. This article posits that the role of institutional owners as financial intermediaries, and the resulting complexity that institutions bring to ownership, distinguish institutional ownership from individual ownership. I develop a model of institutional ownership, referred to as the nexus agency model (NAM), which reflects this complexity. The model provides a framework for identifying the potential additional agency costs to beneficial owners that are associated with owning via financial institutions. The degree to which owning via institutions benefits individual owners depends on the adequacy of the legal and regulatory environment and governance mechanisms in protecting individual owners' interests. The applicability of the nexus model to different institutional owner types is then demonstrated in a discussion of U.S. public and private pension plans and mutual funds, leading to the generation of a NAM-based research agenda for each type and across the types. The article ends with discussion of the model's applicability to non-U.S. institutional environments.     

机构投资者持股与上市公司违规行为的实证研究

本文采用部分可观测的Bivariate Probit估计方法,对2001年至2009年中国1729家上市公司进行回归检验,发现机构投资者持股比例降低了公司违规行为倾向,同时增加了公司违规行为被稽查的可能性。该结论在控制了机构投资者变量内生性的因素后仍旧稳健。进一步研究表明,相比公司经营违规,机构投资者对信息披露违规倾向的影响更强。另外,相比证券机构投资者,养老保险基金、社保基金、企业年金持股的公司中违规公司比例更低。除此以外,机构投资者对公司违规的抑制与检举作用并不受其它公司治理变量的影响。本文的研究表明中国机构投资者在预防与打击上市公司违规行为方面发挥了重要的作用,并且也为上市公司与监管部门提供了治理和防范企业违规的线索。     

How do shareholders influence international firms’ environmental strategies? The differential impact of strategic and financial investors

Debates about the drivers of corporate environmental strategy as well as the influence of shareholders on environmental investments have grown exponentially in the last decade. This paper provides a novel perspective on the influence of investors on a firm's environmental strategy by theorizing how the shareholders' orientation may provide different resources for firms to outperform environmental institutional pressures, and further analyzing how foreign market exposure moderates this relationship. Our results, produced from a longitudinal sample of 2237 observations between 2007 and 2017 from 276 US firms in 11 industries, show that having a higher percentage of strategic shareholders positively drives firms' environmental proactivity. Meanwhile, having a higher percentage of financial shareholders is positively related to firms' environmental proactivity only at high levels of foreign market exposure, but is negatively related at low levels. Our results contribute to the ownership and environmental strategy literature by delimitating the different influences of strategic and financial investors on firms' environmental strategy and making a bridge between institutional and resource-based perspectives.     

机构投资者、代理成本与公司价值——基于随机前沿模型及门槛回归的实证分析

本文运用随机前沿模型,从代理成本的视角出发,实证检验了以证券投资基金为代表的机构投资者对公司价值的影响。研究结果表明,机构投资者持股对公司价值具有显著正面影响,但同时也表现出明显的“倒L”型特征。基于这一发现,进一步采用Hansen（1999）提出的面板门槛模型,测算了机构投资者对公司价值的影响发生显著结构性变化时的门槛水平,结果表明,当机构持股比例超过大约12%时,机构投资者对公司价值的提升作用会大幅减弱。同时,本文还发现,开放式基金相较于封闭式基金对公司价值的提升具有更加积极的作用。     

机构投资者持股偏好、筛选策略与企业社会绩效

以中国上市公司为研究对象,采用最小二乘法和两阶段最小二乘法,借助EViews工具,检验中国机构投资者持股与企业社会绩效的关系,以考察机构投资者基于企业社会绩效的持股偏好和筛选策略,选取2005年至2009年沪深两市918家上市公司为样本进行实证检验。研究结果表明,机构投资者表现出对企业社会绩效的持股偏好,在制定持股决策时会考虑企业社会绩效,尤其是近两年的企业社会绩效。进一步对机构投资者进行分类研究表明,各类机构投资者持股与企业社会绩效关系的差异性较大,仅有基金表现出类似的持股偏好。机构投资者整体和基金的持股偏好是源于筛选策略的介入,正面筛选策略比负面筛选策略对持股偏好的影响程度更大,即机构投资者制定投资决策时以正面筛选策略为主要手段,负面筛选策略为辅。     

机构投资者关注上市公司的信息透明度吗?——基于不同类型机构投资者选股能力视角

机构投资者一直以具有较好的选股能力立足于资本市场。本文利用2004-2007年深交所的上市公司为样本,从信息透明度角度检验机构投资者的选股能力。实证研究发现:与预期一样,在信息透明度评级较高的公司,机构持股比例会较高和持股机构数目会较多,短线机构持股比例会较高;在信息透明度评级上升的公司,机构会调高持股比例和增加机构数目,短线机构会调高持股比例,长线机构投资者并不会基于信息透明度评级的变化调节其持股比例;与预期相反,在信息透明度评级较高的公司长线机构持股比例会较高。因此,提高公司持股机构化的同时拓宽机构投资者信息获取通道是当务之急。     

Multinational firms' pace of expansion within host countries: How high rates of pro-market reform hamper the local exploitation of foreign expansion knowledge

Although increases in corporate ownership positions in foreign markets occur frequently, the factors that determine how quickly such increases occur are underexplored. Combining international business research on experiential learning, knowledge recombination, and pro-market reform, we hypothesize that a firm's international experience with ownership increases has a positive effect on the pace at which the firm implements an ownership increase in a host country, but that this effect is weaker during periods of quicker pro-market reform in the country. We find support for our hypotheses in an analysis of Austrian firms expanding in Central and Eastern Europe, suggesting that, rather than merely being beneficial to foreign investors, pro-market reform also poses a challenge to them.     

Governance Structure,Innovation and Internationalization: Evidence From India

We examine the impact of firm-level governance structure on the innovation and internationalization strategies of emerging market firms. We propose that in the case of emerging market firms, governance is a response to the prevailing institutional environment and affects the innovation and internationalization strategies of firms. Based on a longitudinal sample of 16,337 firm-year observations of Indian listed firms over a year time period from 2002 to 2009, we find a positive effect of family ownership and group affiliation on R&D intensity and new foreign investments. Institutional ownership also positively affects new foreign investments, but has no effect on R&D intensity. Further, we find that R&D intensity interacts with family ownership, institutional ownership and group affiliation in affecting new foreign investments.     

Can institutional investors fix the corporate governance problem? Some Danish evidence

It has been advocated within corporate governance that institutional investors may discipline management in listed firms and thereby alleviate the free rider problem associated with dispersed ownership. This article tests this hypothesis using a sample of Danish listed firms during 1998–2001 determining, whether ownership by institutional investors impacts performance, measured by Tobin’s q. Using three stage least squares, it is shown that aggregate ownership by institutional investors does not influence firm performance. However, when decomposing the results, it is found that joint ownership by the largest two Danish institutional investors, has a significant negative impact firm performance. Ownership by banks and to a lesser extent insurance companies significantly influences firm performance positively. The results somehow challenge the conventional wisdom, arguing that the black box view of institutional investors should be abandon. Therefore it is suggested that a more careful analysis should be devoted to each institutional investors own legal environment.

Ownership and corporate social responsibility: "The power of the female touch"

Using a sample of 26,029 firm-year observations over the period 2002–2017 from 4,479 firms and 44 countries, we examine the relationship between ownership concentration and corporate social responsibility by focusing on the mediating role of board gender diversity and the moderating role of family shareholding. We find that ownership concentration negatively affects corporate social responsibility, and the board gender diversity partially mediates this negative effect. Our results indicate that the mediating effect of board gender diversity leads to a 10.65 percent decrease in the impact of ownership concentration on corporate social responsibility. Furthermore, moderated path analysis indicates that family shareholding weakens the direct effect of ownership concentration on board gender diversity and its indirect effect on corporate social responsibility. In post hoc analysis, we also document that the effect of gender diversity on the board is more prevalent in high gender-egalitarian societies where women are more involved in decision-making. Our study addresses the strategic role of female board members in increasing firms’ respect for corporate social responsibility, especially in family-controlled firms. Thus, our results may provide insights to regulators and policymakers to enhance firms’ corporate social practices by encouraging women’s participation on corporate boards.     

Business ethics,company value and ownership structure

This paper examines the effect of ethical performance on the value of a company and the attractiveness of its stocks for major owners; institutional investors and insiders. Using the Ethisphere^® Institute Ethics Quotient to distinguish between ethical and unethical companies, results show that good ethical performance enhanced company value for a sample of 240 large US companies. Furthermore, strong evidence is found that institutional investors are attracted to ethical companies, but that insiders do not show any investment preferences based on the ethical performance of a company.

     

分析师社交媒体在信息传播效率中的作用——基于分析师微博的研究

利用分析师开通微博这一现象,探究社交媒体能否有助于提高分析师信息传播效率.主要结果表明:首先,与未开通微博的分析师相比,分析师在开通微博后,其信息传播效率显著提升,而分析师停止在微博发布消息后,提升效应随之消失;其次,分析师微博的关注度越高,信息传播效率越高.进一步发现,信息传播效率的提升效应仅适用于明星分析师和机构投资者持股比例高的公司,说明微博信息的供求双方主要是明星分析师和机构投资者.总之,本研究为探讨分析师社交媒体在资本市场中的作用提供了证据支持.     

基于机构投资者的董事会效率变化研究

利用面板数据模型研究了机构投资者对董事会效率的影响。研究结果发现,机构持股比例与当期的董事会规模、董事会独立性、领导权机构、董事会激励机制和董事会会议次数无显著相关关系,但与后期的董事会独立性和董事会会议次数之间存在显著相关性,从而证实了机构投资者对董事会效率的提高有积极作用,这对目前我国监管机构提倡大力培育机构投资者的政策有一定的参考意义。